Hello I was wondering if maybe there are people who read articles, newspaper/blog headlines, ect. and would be willing to share a sentence or two every now and then about what's going on in Japan with Downtown, as well as Cocorico and Hosei-san.I would love to come back to this post every now and then and read some exciting news, but since I cannot read in Japanese, I can only put my trust in those who can and are willing to spend a minute or two from time to time

I sometimes post Housei related news or interesting Tweets by him on my Tumblr ( http://yamasakigifs.tumblr.com ) with my usual crappy amateur attempts at translation. Some examples of what I posted in the past on there:

Talk of coming down with the flu / hiatus from TV (which led to him missing the last Negativity challenge and him getting teased in the last ep of Gaki).

The "not elite salt" (his words) birthday cake show staff gave him.

A solo rakugo performance to a large audience he did where Hamada's wife sent him a big bouquet of congratulatory flowers

Interview he made about the batsu and Chono's slap.

Mentioning going out for a meal with Higashino Koji then encountering "Hentai Teacher Endo" on the train who joined them, but that it "turned out alright and nothing happened" because Endo was "sandwiched between manager staff".

And for new shows, as well as mentioning that Downtown will get a new variety show next month to replace the recently cancelled '100 Byo Hakase Academy' on TBS (new show airs next month, timeslot is 10pm on Wednesday nights), this article reports that Tanaka will also have his first collaboration with Ninety-nine's Okamura Takashi on a variety show called 'Discovery X', which will start airing on 11:53pm on Wednesdays next month: http://natalie.mu/owarai/news/111186

I wonder if the reason Wide Show was moved to a morning slot is because of feedback/ratings or because the network wanted to compete with another show on another network.. perhaps both?

But it seems to me that a morning slot might make it harder to showcase a discussion on more controversial topics, since people might watch it with their kids..

I don't know about the ratings, but Wide na Show is actually broadcast at midnight at the moment and has got a bit of a cult status for discussing issues that some of the prime time shows don't dare touching. Because of this, Fuji TV actually moved it to a new timeslot to hopefully capitalise but now there are some fears that with this earlier timeslot, they have to be more careful, like you said.

Found this piece today talking about some in the entertainment world who are uncomfortable with each other and don't appear together on TV. Downtown's 'feud' with Bakusho Mondai (Hikari Ota and Yuji Tanaka) is the main one covered here: http://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20140316_246256.html

Basically, 20 years ago when Bakusho Mondai were still struggling to get recognition, Ota went on radio and made fun of Matsumoto's fashion sense as a joke. Matsumoto got angry at this when he heard about it and then went to Ota and made him bow down and apologise. Since then, the two duos have not had any involvement together in shows whatsoever.

This article was posted in response to the above news from this thread that Wide na Show was being moved to a new timeslot, which is actually very close to a show in a similar timeslot on the same day called 'Sunday Japon' which is also hosted by Bakusho Mondai, fuelling rumours of some sort of a competition between these two, although it seems mainly to be Matsumoto vs Bakusho Mondai, given Hamada has no involvement with Wide na Show.

Wandering around on Japanese forums, I've seen quite a few topics on comedians and actors who don't co-star together because of incidents. Downtown themselves have quite a few but the main two especially seem to be Tunnels (Takaaki Ishibashi and Noritake Kinashi) and Bakusho Mondai etc. Given that Waratte Iitomo is ending this month with all past regulars returning for a day to celebrate and that Tunnels and Bakusho Mondai are part of the show now, I wonder if Downtown will appear, given they themselves were regulars at one point.

solari wrote:I have read/heard that Hamada is the one who has problems working with Tunnels...

Kyoukun no Susume is moving to a Friday timeslot in April

I say it's a good move for Kyokun no Susume. Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q (hosted by Uchimura of Ucchan Nanchan) is really killing it in the ratings so maybe a change is a good thing.

As for Downtown and Tunnels, it does go both ways I think. This article posted last year says Ishibashi allegedly has problems working with comedians from the Kansai region and reported that he thought they were 'unusable' to him: http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/7682634/.

There's a reference to Matsumoto in this article (俺と松本（人志）、どっちを取るんだよ！？), which basically means 'who is better, me or Matsumoto'. In what context this is used, I'm not sure, but there seems to be some bad blood or something like that.

Matsumoto has also said on Housoushitsu (radio program he hosted with Gaki script writer Takasu Mitsuyoshi) that he would find it difficult to collaborate with Tunnels again (they did appear together once on a show when they were younger). There is a clip of him talking about it here but there aren't any subs, so one day I hope someone with better Japanese skills could translate this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXKc3tQOQgU

Summary of this article: On this Monday's unseen footage special of 'Wide Na Show' (its last one in midnight timeslot), Matsumoto was quizzed by SMAP's Nakai about the future of variety shows. He replied that in his opinion, the entertainment world had undertaken a vast change in the past ten years. He was then questioned by Higashino about Downtown's future as a duo and he replied by saying that there would definately come a time when Downtown would disband and go their own ways. When pressed further about this, he went on to say that he felt that both him and Hamada know that they were conscious of the fact that they would one day separate.

While it is refreshing to hear Matsumoto this honest about himself and his future in the entertainment world, it is still rather sad to be hearing this stuff. I know some comedy duos can disappear without leaving a mark on the comedy scene but for such a big name to be talking like this makes me wonder whether he's had enough. I must admit, Downtown have copped quite a bit of bad press lately and it is a bit unsettling, that's for sure

It is indeed sad but I think that for all intents and purposes Downtown have not really been a 'duo' in the typical sense for a number of years whilst still being very funny together. By that I mean, Matsumoto has not been interested in TV since he got engrossed in film directing whilst Hamada does a lot of TV. Hamada does Gobu Gobu, Hamachanga, Entertainer Rating Check, P-Battle currently but he has a long list of other recent TV shows. I think Matsumoto mainly just does the Wide Na show? Hopefully it won't end up like Housei's comedy duo partner Hiromitsu Noriyasu who decided to become a film director and quit being a comedian (hence why Housei became a solo comedian).

The shows they recently hosted together seemed largely factual and not as focused on comedy since they phased out doing manzai together, I think Gaki is the main show they can be funny together without it having to be focused on just themselves so it seems the most comfortable for them. The rest of the cast seem to know it too. Like when they were at a restaurant and Housei slinked off to where Cocorico were making everyones orders, then laughed about leaving Downtown to be awkward together. When Matsumoto recently said "Housei's interests are totally opposite to mine, but I like someone who is the total opposite of me" I wondered if he felt he was too similar to Hamada. It is a shame considering their beginnings but hopefully they'll still be able to carry on awkwardly in Gaki.

EDIT: By the way, thinking about it, aren't Cocorico kinda like that too? Do they host much shows together or do manzai anymore? It seems like they also do a lot of stuff separately instead of together just like Downtown but I could be wrong.

Matsumoto does do a couple of special programs like Suberanai Hanashi and Ippon Grand Prix, which is a comedian contest to see who can come up with the best jokes to certain questions.

2ch is known to be quite harsh to other comedians as well, aren't they? It's why I mostly give little heed to their opinions since you get a hell of a lot of negativity and rarely any positives on any comedians. I still remember someone saying on 2ch that if everyone who used it were subjected to a Negativity Prohibited-style activity, all of them would be punished because they'd been too negative in their posts . In terms of the discussions about the duo, there are several main things that I have seen been commonly raised in Downtown 2ch threads:

- Matsumoto has gotten less funny since his marriage in 2009. I can't tell you how many times I have seen them raise the finger at this as a reason he's not funny anymore. They also joke that he's been working out so much in the gym that he's left his comedic sense in there and maybe he should get a divorce so he can be funny again, which I really don't understand - 2ch users like Hamada more nowadays as they feel unlike Matsumoto, he hasn't changed much and still can be depended on to provide a good foil for the people he works with.- Most want the free talk manzai-style corner back in Gaki or just want to see them perform simple manzai again. However much Downtown may be polarising to 2ch users, most of them agree that their strength is their manzai routine and that they're still amongst the top tier of comedians when it comes to improvisation.- Hamada is seen by 2ch to be able to work efficiently on his own hosting the various shows that you mentioned above (Gobu Gobu) etc. For some reason, they think Matsumoto on his own wouldn't be able to work properly on solo shows (ironically, his Suberanai Hanashi series and Ippon Grand Prixs have gotten solid ratings)

I won't go any further because the constructive criticism ends there and it just descends into chaos there (repeated gloating and trolling from hardcore fans of rival comedians (particularly Tunnels and Ucchan Nanchan fans) about Downtown's bad TV ratings, jibes about his looks, racist stuff about his wife who is apparently half-Korean etc.), but Matsumoto certainly cops the brunt of criticism when it comes to discussions like these. Why, I don't know, given I don't think he's changed a lot but then 2ch isn't known for rational, well-thought out discussion, are they?

Yeah absolutely. I think the translated 2ch comments make for a funny read. Kind of like some discussions from certain sections of 4chan (though you may also need to break out the brain bleach after those).

I wonder if he really did say though that Hayao Miyazaki is a "boring lolicon" on his radio show and that "Terry Gilliam shouldn't be making movies" (2ch comment #677)? He's entitled to having strong opinions though of course, I mean he wouldn't be where he is today if he didn't have the guts to say stuff that some might deem controversial Plus opinions on Terry Gilliam are certainly polarized, though I do hope he can make films again (the disasters he's had out of his control during filming are a shame).

Calling Hayao Miyazaki a lolicon is going a bit too far and a bit unwarranted. I'm not that familiar with Terry Gilliam's work so I can't really comment but as you say, he does tend to make strong opinions. As for the brain bleach, I binge on it so I can forget the rubbish that's posted on there

I remember Matsumoto on a recent episode of Wide na Show mentioning the stuff that had been written about them recently and then Higashino or one of the guests at that time questioned why Hamada seem to get off scot-free. Matsumoto joked that he 'has the protection of the company' . In all seriousness though, most negative Downtown articles nowadays do seem to target Matsumoto. For example, this piece was written (http://woman.infoseek.co.jp/news/entertainment/cyzo_20140303_514451) talking about Wide na Show's timeslot change to the same as Bakusho Mondai's Sunday Japon. The article then went on to say that this was a battle between Downtown and Bakusho Mondai to see who would come out on top, despite Hamada not having anything to do with the program. A pretty strange way of piling the pressure on him and pretty unfair to be honest but then again, Japanese media isn't held in high regard even by their own people.